


Torrent

by oh_cripe_my_fish



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Inspir. by superbowl trailer, Literally Tony and Nebula are still on Titan, Metal buddies, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), in which tony and neb are hammering and welding things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 09:24:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17826116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oh_cripe_my_fish/pseuds/oh_cripe_my_fish
Summary: Tony is lost in the aftermath of the snap. Direction and motivation comes from an unlikely source - Nebula. Drabble? Angst.





	Torrent

**Titan**

Tony rocked where he sat, pressed his knuckles to his nose, squeezed his eyes shut when tears began to blur his vision. He tried to will away flashes of leviathan and twinkling stars in the emptiness of space.

It had been cold in space, beyond the portal as his Iron Man systems shut down and Jarvis’ voice phased to silence. It had also been cold in the aftermath of the altercation at the Siberian bunker. 

But neither cold compared to the cold of the sunset on Titan cradling one side of his face, now. At least when he had flown into the portal created by the tesseract, he had felt the dying, the air running out as the cold set in, but this was like experiencing the rot after he was already dead.

Each guardian's disappearance played over and over again in his mind like a broken record. When it finally stops, it's only for Strange's defeated expression to develop from the ashes of their images. When Peter Parker's frightened, young face, floods his mind, Tony can no longer keep his eyes closed and he peels his eyelids open to face reality.

Reality without Peter, so young, with so much to live for.

Perhaps a reality without Pepper, too, the woman Tony couldn't live without.

Potent denial waged war with knowing grief, all coherent thought caught in the crossfire. It made him feel detached from his body. For a split moment, one thought stands out from all the other tangled ones; to find the highest rock on this forsaken planet and throw himself off it. It's what he deserves, he thinks.

Then, suddenly, as if in response to the thoughts of dying, his heart speeds up and he stands abruptly on weak legs. Nauseous and sweating, the white spots are already invading his blurry vision, and he staggers forward, away from Peter Parker's ashes, but there's nowhere to run, no suit he can fold himself into to coax him back into some sort of faux peace-of-mind. There's no Pepper to hold him and convince him everything would be fine. With a hand grappling at his sternum, he tries to take deep breaths to get his hyperventilating under control, even when each breath makes the deep wound in his abdomen burn and throb. 

He tries, and tries some more. It takes a while, but eventually the attack subsides and he falls back to sit on hard, jagged rock, breeze tickling his ears and ash alight in the sun's rays, the particles floating in the breeze in front of his eyes as he daydreams, mind faraway. There's nothing particular at the forefront it, the numbing shock and exhaustion creating a void in him that provided a brief moment of quietude.

_Mr Stark- I don't want to go, please, sir, I don't want to go._

"I know that look," a voice speaks up, causing him to flinch.

The voice was of a lone blue woman with many robotic parts that he hadn't realised was still there.  As Tony looks over at her, he quickly wipes a tear from his cheek. He recognises her as the woman that had tried a hand at Thanos herself before Strange had handed over the time stone. She was an alien Tony hadn't spoken a word to, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that she was an acquaintance of the Guardians.

Her black, almost inhuman eyes are hard and angry, yet glassy with tears. Tony can't bring himself to respond, words lost to him as Peter's desperate pleas reverberate in his ears.

"You wish it had been you." she continued, looking behind Tony determinedly and blinking tears from her own eyes with a scowl as she thinks of the fate that befell her sister. Abruptly, she turns away from him. "Let's go."

The demand was jarring and Tony's brow furrowed as he stares at her back. "W-what..." he barely croaks out.

"You're an Avenger, Tony Stark." she says with unwavering resolution, her voice somewhat showing quiet vulnerability yet a burning, steady, raging fixation all-the-same. Despite still being weak at the knees, Tony stands slowly as she glances over her shoulder at him. " _Avenge_."


End file.
